MPP Michael Mantha’s News from the Park : Sale of Public Assets & Affordable Post-Secondary
Algoma-Manitoulin MPP Michael Mantha
Ontario’s New Democrats, vowed to fight the privatization of Ontario’s hydro system and campaign against the sell-off of public assets by the Liberals. The Liberal Government of Ontario is currently reviewing proposals to sell off a significant amount of our shared public assets. This includes your Ontario Power Generation (OPG), Hydro One, and the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO).
Our shared public assets provide more affordable hydro, develop environmentally-friendly energy, create thousands of good Ontario jobs, and are accountable to all Ontarian. Our shared public assets put money in the public bank account so we can invest in hospitals, roads and schools.
“Resurrecting botched schemes from the Mike Harris days to privatize hydro will only drive up bills for families and enrich insiders,” said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.
New Democrats have launched a campaign aimed at preventing the Liberal government’s planned fire-sale of Ontario’s public assets and maintaining the province’s ownership of public hydro agencies and the LCBO.
The Premier’s Advisory Council on Government Assets has been meeting privately in recent weeks with bidders who stand to profit from the sale of public assets, and is headed by TD Bank Group President and CEO Ed Clark.
Asking a bank CEO to oversee the fire-sale of public assets to Bay Street is like asking the fox to mind the hen house. Our public assets benefit all Ontarians, but the Liberals want to sell them off, and give control of vital infrastructure to financial speculators.
The Liberals agreed selling off the Highway 407 costs the people of Ontario $1 billion a year, but now they’re looking at selling off the LCBO which generates almost twice as much as the HWY 407. If selling the HWY 407 was a bad idea, selling off the LCBO is an even worse idea.”
Sign and join the campaign to stop the sell-off of our shared public assets – CLICK HERE.
In other new, as students head back to university and college, Statistics Canada is confirming that undergraduate and graduate students in Ontario continue to face the highest average tuition fees in Canada. In fact, undergraduate students in Ontario are paying an average 3.9% more than last year, the second highest annual increase of any province.
For the Minister to claim that the high cost of post-secondary isn’t really a problem in Ontario shows how out of touch this Liberal government is with the concerns of families. It’s clear that this Liberal government has no plan to make higher education more affordable for Ontario students.
While the Minister claims that a patchwork of loans and grants is good enough, New Democrats know that the high cost of education is keeping too many qualified students out of the classroom. We will continue to make our children’s access to higher education a priority and encourage policy that makes post-secondary study more accessible to all students.
As always, please feel free to contact my office about this issue, or any other provincial matters. You can reach my constituency office by email at mmantha-co@ndp.on.ca or by phone at 705-461-9710/1-800-831-1899.
MPP Michael Mantha, Algoma-Manitoulin
